The Haines Borough Assembly this week began delving into the nitty-gritty of interim manager Brad Ryan’s draft budget for the upcoming fiscal year, debating whether to fund a fifth police officer position and if $32,500 for local nonprofits should be reduced or eliminated from the spending plan.
Ryan’s budget allows for a four-member force – one chief and three officers – but interim chief Josh Dryden has been pushing for funds for the department’s former five-member operation. When asked at Monday’s committee-of-the-whole meeting if four officers has been working out, Dryden said it hasn’t.
“I don’t think we can operate with four. We have been operating, but I don’t think it’s to the public’s best interest,” Dryden said. “There are a lot of things we can’t do with four. The drug problem in town is getting worse and worse and worse. We’re actually finding paraphernalia now. We can’t do a whole lot with three officers and a chief. The chief is going to be stuck in the office half the time.”
Dryden also pointed out the smaller staff leads to officer burnout and doesn’t allow for officers to take time away from the job for training.
The four-member force is a holdover from former manager David Sosa’s budget last year, in which he left one of the officer positions unfilled.
Before Dryden’s opinion was solicited, assembly member Margaret Friedenauer suggested budgeting for a fifth officer for only six months of the year. That way the new police chief could be hired and make a determination about whether a fifth officer was necessary, she said.
Assembly member Diana Lapham initially balked at this suggestion, saying that if six months down the line the new chief decides he needs another officer, he could bring that request to the manager and have it passed on to the assembly.
After Dryden’s explanation, though, Lapham was all for funding a fifth officer fulltime. “Given that information that (Dryden) has just shared with us, then why is there even a conversation of having a fifth officer for six months? There should be a fifth officer year-round,” Lapham said. “If our drug problem is increasing and getting worse, put a fifth officer on. Find funding for a fifth officer.”
To fund the fifth position, the assembly would have to raise the mill rate or restructure the sales tax, as those are the two revenue streams for the townsite service area fund, which encompasses the police department’s budget, said chief fiscal officer Jila Stuart.
Assembly member Friedenauer asked whether the townsite service area’s hefty fund balance – about $1.4 million in reserves – could be used to fund the position. Stuart seemed lukewarm to that idea.
“Do we want a public safety structure that we can’t pay for on an annual basis, that we have to dig into reserves to be able to pay for?” Stuart asked.
It’s unclear how much another officer would cost, as union negotiations between the borough and its employees are currently under way. However, the lowest paid officer at the department right now makes $56,600 in salary per year, but costs the borough a total of $91,200 with benefits.
Lapham also asked whether the borough should be budgeting for another audit of the police department, as former manager Sosa had strongly advised the department conduct the audit every two to three years. The last study cost the borough $22,000.
“I don’t see anything in here. That was something that Mr. Sosa again was trying to make (happen),” she said.
When asked by assembly member Mike Case if he thought regular audits were needed, interim chief Dryden replied with an emphatic “No.”
“(Former interim chief Robert Griffiths and I) think it was a waste of money. That’s our personal opinion. For what we got out of it, I could have told you all that,” Dryden said.
The debate over whether the borough should continue to set aside funds for distribution to local nonprofits also continued at Monday’s meeting, with assembly member George Campbell stating he would like to cut the “community chest” from $32,500 to $5,000.
Lapham agreed the community chest funds should be put on “the backburner” and are “very low on the priority list.”
“I have heard from members of the community (that) they don’t like that,” Lapham said of the community chest. “They don’t like that they’re being taxed, that money is going to nonprofits that they have no control over.”
Assembly member Campbell reiterated his previously stated preference for fixing the Lutak Dock and wastewater treatment plant, even suggesting spending “almost our entire budget reserves” to go toward those two projects.
The areawide and townsite service area fund balances total about $4 million.
Ryan’s plan to eliminate the community and economic development director and hire an executive assistant to the manager also came under Campbell’s scrutiny, though none of the other members expressed opposition to the personnel change, which would also include cutting the deputy clerk position to half-time.
No action can be taken at committee meetings.
The budget is scheduled for introduction at Tuesday’s assembly meeting.